The One Where They Meet
by 4thestrife
Summary: Where Sirius meets Remus, Remus meets Sirius, and James questions his friend's sanity. Mostly friendship slightly preslash-R/S


_To say that Sirius Black was excited as he stood on Platform 9 3/4 for the first time would be an understatement, a very large understatement, _James thought wryly as his best mate wriggled in excitement next to him.

The platform was crowded with a variety of families in various states of disarray, and it seemed that Sirius thrived in the chaos of it all. He and James had long ago lost track of their parents and trunks. Instead, they were busy pushing their way through the crowd in an attempt to find some of their friends. Somewhere behind them James vaguely could hear his mother calling, but quickly forgot about it as Sirius tugged the sleeve of his robe.

"Look!" The dark haired boy pointed towards a group of older students who were in the midst of turning the hair of one of their fellows a bright purple. "Just imagine, in a few days we could do that." James decided not to alert him to the fact that Hogwarts teachers probably didn't teach that sort of spell. "Now that we actually have our wands, the prank possibilities are endless."

James grinned at his friend. "My mum says that starting in third year we'll be going to Hogsmeade. Do you know what that means?"

Sirius' eyes grew wide. "Zonko's…" He whispered the word in reverence. "The old hag never takes me there."

James rolled his eyes. "According to you, your mother never takes you anywhere."

"She doesn't. Apparently I'm a disgrace to the family and must be hidden away from pureblood society," Sirius repeated scathingly.

James, in an attempt to distract his friend, pushed him lightly so that they were once again making their way through the crowd. "Don't whine so much, you tosser! We're going to Hogwarts! You won't even have to look at your mum for a whole year."

"Let's just get on the train, James. The sooner I'm out of here, the better," Sirius muttered, making his way into one of the Hogwarts express' many doors.

As it was still early the train was still mostly empty. After poking their heads into a few compartments, mostly occupied by older students trying to finish their summer work who glared at the intruding first years, they found an empty compartment near the back of the train. Sirius, on seeing the wide expanse of seat space, proceeded to lie across an entire trio of the seats and grin at James who took a seat opposite him.

James after realizing that his friend was starting to doze off, proceeded to take out his wand and flick it around, giving small shouts of triumph whenever he could get multi-coloured sparks to shoot out of the end. It wasn't until fifteen minutes later, after the engine had started off, and the boys could hear the parents on the platform calling out their final good byes, that they were interrupted. A small boy their age, with messy auburn hair and startlingly large amber eyes, peeked his head in the door and jumped in surprise upon seeing them.

"I-I-I'm sorry." He said quietly, eyes darting between the two boys. "I didn't know anyone was in here." He quickly ducked back out before James could respond.

"I guess he's in our year," James said turning to Sirius. "He seemed really nervous though, I guess he doesn't know anyone and- Sirius are you listening to me? Sirius?"

James suddenly realized that the previously languid Sirius was bolt upright in his seat staring in awe at the doorway.

"Are you alright, mate?" James asked tentatively.

Sirius hadn't seemed to have heard him. "Did you see him? He was so…so…"

"So what?" James asked impatiently.

"Cute."

James was dumbfounded for a moment before reaching across to press the back of his hand to his friend's head.

"James!" Sirius cried batting the hand away. "What're you doing?"

"Checking your temperature! No, it seems normal. Maybe you hit your head to hard jumping onto the seat like that." James said studying his head seriously. "Are you feeling dizzy by any chance?"

"No! What's your problem?"

"My problem! Do you, Sirius Black, not realize that you just called another boy cute?" He demanded planting his hands firmly on his hips.

"Well he was!" Sirius replied in a huffy manner.

"No he wasn't!"

"Yes he was!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"No!"

"Yes!" James cried. "Damn it! That's not fair."

Sirius grinned deviously at him. "All's fair in love and war, mate!"

"What?"

"Oh never mind! James get out of the way. I have to go find him!" Sirius said leaping from his seat.

James stumbled out of the way as Sirius barrelled past him out the door. He heard his friend's

loud footsteps echoing down the cart followed by a loud bang, and a cry of pain.

"I'm sorry!" he heard Sirius exclaim. Sticking his head out the compartments door, James could see Sirius helping the boy from earlier get back to his feet. The boy mumbled some words James couldn't hear, but made Sirius grin.

Sirius thrust his hand towards the smaller boy and exclaimed excitedly. "I'm delighted to have run in to you. I'm Sirius Black."

The boy took Sirius's outstretched hand with one of his own and shook it gently, looking almost as if doing so would cause Sirius to explode. The smaller student muttered something low to Sirius, who promptly grabbed his arm and began dragging him back towards the compartment. James quickly fell back into his seat, and tried to look surprised when the two entered.

"James," said Sirius, "meet Remus Lupin. Remus, meet James Potter."

"Hello," Remus whispered.

"I'm sorry about Sirius here; he can be a bloody wanker at times."

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed, but though he tried to look offended he appeared quite pleased that Remus had chuckled at James' joke.

"So," said Sirius dragging Remus to sit across from James, "James and I have decided we're going to be Gryffindors! I think you should be too, because then you could be our dorm mate!" Sirius seated himself next to Remus so that, even though they had plenty of room on the seat, they sat with their sides pressed together from shoulder to thigh.

Remus shrugged. "I don't really mind what house I'm in, but I guess it would be nice to know someone in my house."

Sirius taking this as some sort of agreement to join their band of Gryffindors, bounced happily in his seat. Remus seeming to relax after becoming somewhat acquainted with Sirius' personality smiled shyly at him.

"Know what I think?" Sirius said excitedly eyes darting between James and Remus.

"What?" James asked, laying his head back to rest against the seat, all too used to Sirius' overly excited nature. Remus, on the other hand, waited for an answer staring at Sirius curiously.

Sirius squeezed Remus' arm, which he had still been holding. "I think the three of us are going to be the best of friends."

_**A/N: I'd like to thank my beta ancarett, my stories would probably be atrocious without her.**_


End file.
